Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf took the opportunity this week to reiterate the bank’s long-held acquisition strategy of avoiding a large bank deal.

Instead, the San Francisco bank is more likely to look for acquisitions in wealth management or the insurance distribution business — two key growth areas for the bank. Wells is also taking advantage of market conditions to acquire small banks that boost market share with little integration risk.

“A large transformational (deal) is highly unlikely. Not impossible, but highly unlikely,” Stumpf told the Financial Times this week. “We don’t need to do a deal. Organic growth is the core growth engine in this company.”

Earlier this year, Stumpf told the Business Times that he was open to doing a Fed-assisted deal in the wake of the Federal Reserve orchestrating the sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase. In that transaction, the central bank is standing behind $29 billion in questionable Bear Stearns assets.

Industry observers believe Wells was considering a bid for Cleveland-based National City Corp. — one of the nation’s largest banks — until no assistance was forthcoming from the Fed.

Wells has no need to rush into a big bank merger. It’s weathering the financial storm relatively well, capturing market share from weakened competitors, boosting its dividends last month and maintaining its top ratings from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Corp.

Stumpf says his bank is benefitting from decisions made during the housing bubble such as not offering so-called option ARMs or adjustable rate mortgages, which allowed borrowers to make a payment that caused loan balances to rise — or negative amortization.

“It is more difficult to attend a party and leave before the trouble starts than not to attend the party at all,” Stumpf told the Financial Times. “Part of my job here is to make sure we don’t attend parties that make no sense.”

Stumpf echoed longtime Chairman Dick Kovacevich in saying, “We come from a culture where bigger is not better. You get bigger by being better, you don’t get better by being bigger.”

Bay Area residents will hear from Kovacevich himself when he makes something of a farewell address at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Oct. 21 at 6 p.m.

Kovacevich is speaking as part of the club’s “Now & Then” speaker series that serves as a retrospective on America’s baby boom generation. Specifically, he’ll discuss the evolution of banking and financial services since the end of World War II. In conversation with Wells Fargo’s Stephen Seewer, a financial consultant and Churchill Club program chair, Kovacevich also will examine how the industry might evolve over the next decade.

Kovacevich’s presentation comes at an opportune time as he prepares to leave the bank by year-end. Today’s industry woes will provide rich fodder for San Francisco’s best-known banker. His remarks are likely to be informative and entertaining.

S.F. banks observe 100th anniversary of offices

Two years ago was the century mark since San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire. Now First Bank and Union Bank of California are observing the anniversaries of their historic bank buildings that rose from the rubble.

First Bank held an open house this month at its Montgomery Street office that once served as headquarters for A.P. Giannini’s Bank of Italy, predecessor of today’s Bank of America. The marble on the walls, ornate ceiling and large vault in the lobby underscored the need to physically capture the feeling of safety and soundness before the days of federal deposit insurance. (Given renewed concerns about the safety of today’s financial institutions, one can’t help but wonder whether we’ll return to architecture that underscores strength and stability.)

The Bank of Italy offices built in 1908 represent how quickly Giannini’s bank prospered from the days after the 1906 earthquake when he was doing business on a makeshift table.

Next month, Union Bank of California will celebrate its San Francisco roots when it conducts a “rededication ceremony” for its historic banking hall at California and Sansome streets. Mayor Gavin Newsom and Union Bank of California President and CEO Masaaki Tanaka are scheduled to speak at the Sept. 8 ceremony.

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